late nights, book binges and dreaming of cocktails

Wednesday was a rest day because I had my massage, after a really busy week of work my poor back was a bit tight because I have been pretty much stuck at my desk and couldn’t go for a long walk at lunch time like I usually do.

Thursday I went for another 15:1 by 2 run/walk, a little slower than I have been running lately, about 6.1km. A few factors, I was running on footpath for some of it and for some reason I was just plain knackered yesterday afternoon, bloody work is killing me, so I took it a bit easier.

After a quick shower back at the office I trotted off to Borders to pick up some holiday reading, I bought 3 books, probably will only take one though, need to leave room in my carry on luggage for the bottles of rum (Mojitos have lime in them, so is it Ok to drink them at breakfast?) and sneakers. I never buy one book at once, I always end up having a binge every time I step foot in a book shop, one day I will have time to read them all.

I went to see The Whitlams play with the MSO last night and it was bloody fantastic! After seeing them in sweaty pubs with a beer in hand on a number of occasions it was a change to see them in the salubrious surroundings of Hamer Hall at the Arts Centre with the MSO behind them. I was a bit dubious at first about the whole rock back with orchestra thing (Kiss Orchestra anyone?), but I figured that a lot of The Whitlams songs would probably lend themselves well to orchestration. Did they what? They had some very talented musicians involved in arranging some of their classics and the result was well worth the top dollar I paid for my ticket. I even got to see my younger brothers Double Bass tutor in action, as my brother pointed out he was missing out on his lesson because of me

Tim Freedman is still delightful as ever, such a charmer, being only 3 rows back it was all I could do to not rush the stage and plant a big kiss on his cheek.

Speaking of music and handsome lads, JJJ are featuring the new Kings of Leon album, Only by the Night this week, fuck it’s good.

So that’s me all caught up, last day at work for a week, following the Melbourne Marathon long run around on my bike and another 15:1 run tomorrow morning, visit to the doctor for a blood test and to see what sort of running I can step up to, a grand final BBQ (of course!), chuck a bikini in my bag (along with the rum, book and running gear) and then a flight to Cairns on Sunday morning.

Have a great week folks see y’all next Friday.

Last woman standing

Things are a bit frenetic at work at the moment, we are a bit understaffed, one team member is on long service leave, the other has called in sick the last 2 days so it’s just me and the boss.

Anyway, I have a pretty big project on at the moment, along with trying to keep the day to day running of the team ticking over. It looks like my team mate won’t be back this week so I have had to just tell quite a few people to naff off until next week, when my team mate is back and I am in Cairns sucking down cocktails

Not to worry, being this busy keeps me out of trouble, I don’t mind it in small doses.

I went for a run after work today, a bit later than usual because I had some work that needed to be finished today, I am used to having the tan to myself in the afternoon but it was much busier today, just more to perve at really

This week I am on 15 minutes run/1 minute walk by 2 and today I ran about 6.3km, felt good, no pain in the leg.

On JJJ this morning they interviewed Crispin Glover, than on the morning show the DJ played some of the sound track from Dead Man. If you haven’t seen this film stop what you are doing right this instant and get out and hire it. This is one of my all time favourites, beautifully haunting sound track (thanks to Neil Young), beautifully shot and just so understated, stop listening to me, just go hire it. If you are a fan of production line Hollywood then you probably won’t be all that interested, it is shot in black and white and there is very little dialogue but it’s a hell of a film. If I can compare it to anything I would say it evokes a similar mood to The Proposition, an appearance by John Hurt not withstanding I am reminded of The Proposition because both films are set in the pioneering era and have a similar lawless feel to them.

Go on, watch it!

This is the trailer

Here is a sample of the sound track

Meowwwww

It’s Brownlow night tonight, for the uninitiated this is the Australian Rules Football Best and Fairest count.

Unfortunately I won’t be watching the count as I have a couple of very pressing and imminently more interesting tasks that require my attention this evening, there is some drying paint that needs to be watched and with all the rain today I have to keep half an eye on the growing grass as well.

Though I always enjoy looking at the WAGs in all their finery in the paper the next day, of particular interest is to see which poppet will manage to simultaneously expose 90% of her breasts, thighs, back and for added points some butt cleavage as well. There is always one, though based on the glimpse of the red carpet arrivals I just saw on the news we could be in for a bumper year

You can almost smell the desperation in the air as they all clamor to be THE one who makes a splash each year. Hey look at me, I have tits, yawwwwwwn.

Oh I can be a nasty bitch can’t I?

Running and a trip to the vet
Bugger, woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck this morning, sure I over ate last night (damn my Aunty makes good scalloped potatoes) but I didn’t drink much. As the day progressed I realised that I had a bit of a bug, you know that general all over ughhhh feeling.

Then it pissed down all afternoon and I started to debate the merits of running in the cold rain when I wasn’t feeling too clever….

….theeeeen the decision was made for me, poor Scully (the same cat that was at the vet with a bladder infection a few weeks ago) started vomiting blood, ick, but obviously something that needs immediate attention.

So back to the wonderful vets at the RSPCA clinic again straight after work.

As is usual after a trip to the vet the diagnosis is not definite. At 14 she is old (where have the years gone?) and it may be a case of these things happen with age. She has been prescribed some tablets that may help settle the lining of her stomach, the vet fixed me up with one of those fancy pill poppers and they work a treat. The vet gently tried to prepare me for the worst though, if there is no improvement in a week she will need to be knocked out and have a camera down her throat to look in her stomach. There is a chance it is either an ulcer or a tumor, I am not thinking the worst but it is time for me to realise that she won’t be here forever.

Some people may think it a bit silly to be this attached to a wee pussy cat but she is a loyal little darling.

There was a gorgeous little staffy pup in the waiting room and the owner happily indulged me and let me have a pat.

Here’s one for the doggy people (with apologies to Sara who will now while away an hour or two looking at funny doggy pics)

see more puppies

Good morning sunshine

What an uncharacteristically cheery post title I chose today.

I love this time of year when the sun is coming up so early and as much as I also love daylight savings I will miss these super light mornings when we lose them in a week. I suppose I could best be described as a morning person, I used to be more of a night owl when I was at Uni but starting full time work kind of swung my circadian rhythms in the opposite direction. Predictably I zonked out by about 10pm last night so I was out of bed by 630 this morning. Not being able to do a long run I instead opted for laying about on the couch simultaneously watching a murder mystery on TV and getting mugged by cats who wanted the left over milk from my cereal bowl.

An early start meant I have heaps of time to balance my day with lounging about, house work (ughh), exercise, buying champagne, running the car though a car wash (very necessary, my side mirrors were so grubby that I had resorted to using my Jedi mind powers to tell me if it was safe to change lanes), clothes washing, nap and blogging.

60 minutes on the bike this morning, average HR 77%, sweat buckets, not too tedious. I popped up to the bakery quite early this morning, it was cool, the world was still waking up and I did have a bit of a pang that I wasn’t doing a long run.

It’s my Mums birthday today, I am going over to her house this afternoon as she thinks I am taking her out to dinner, in actual fact I am taking her over to my Aunty’s house and we are surprising her with a family dinner, hence the champagne shopping today.

Another 4 day running week next week, yay

BTW my legs feel just grrrrrrreat after yesterday, was worried I would be punished for deviating from the plan but it appears not.

more animals

Farewell to XCR08

My second cross country and road season has drawn to a close and although slightly better than last year I still had to miss 3 rounds due to injury

I never really got to run when I was on top form either, funny, until I started running for a club I was injury free, Hmmmmm…..

…yes, over the last month or so I was seriously thinking of giving it away, maybe run some invite races next year but taking my training and racing back to a more low key approach. Mostly I was feeling this way because I was getting tired of feeling bad for pulling up injured and letting the side down, maybe with that pressure gone I could just relax and enjoy it more.

But of course I turn up today to run the last round of the season, slotting in as the token girl on the Mens Div 5 team, chatting with team mates and friends from other teams and I remember how much I enjoy being a part of it. The perspective changes somewhat when I am back amongst it rather than being a sad sack on the sidelines.

Knowing that I was going to be running 18 minutes or more non-stop I opted not to do a warm up, other than some dynamic stretching. Had I not been running the relay today I would have been doing 12.5 by 2/1 minute walk/5 by 1, so I didn’t want to push my luck with warm ups/cool downs, all I ran today was the 3.82km lap of the tan.

As it was my time today was 17:43 and a team mate helpfully pointed out that this was 12.5 + 5 so I could still go and do another 12.5, thing is, I didn’t stop for a 1 minute stroll in the middle.

Last year I ran 17:35 (soft though, I was rebuilding then too) so I was pretty pleased with today, especially as the Anderson Street Hill smacked me about (haven’t run a hill since the Geelong XC back in July when in hindsight I was already injured) and I did not hammer it on the down hill as I usually would, in fact with 800 metres to go I really let up and cruised it in. I did finish feeling like I was going to hurl but that was less to do with effort and more to do with the anxiety of being back in the competitive environment. I was quite surprised to see the time as I only looked at my watch once and didn’t bother taking splits, the reason being if I started checking time I’d have been tempted to push for a PB, based on effort I was expecting to see something in the mid 18s.

And my legs feel fine

Back on the bike tomorrow, I will hate it less knowing that it has helped keep me in pretty fine form these last 6 weeks or so, I’d say I was at about 85% fitness after today’s effort.

Some track races will be on the agenda over Summer too, probably some 3000s and maybe a 5000, I had a chat with some team mates and they allayed some of my fears. I can use the 3000s to help sharpen me up a bit, my CV fitness seems to have held quite well, I just need to get back the leg speed and improve my endurance.

Schadenfreude anyone
I am not normally a spiteful person (I swear to you I did not laugh when I found out Alan Jones had prostate cancer, it was a cough, you have to believe me) but upon reading the news that New Idea had pulled the plug on a deal to buy Kyle Sandilands wedding photos due to lack of A List celeb guests I damn near gave my self a hernia I laughed so hard.

I can be quoted as having recently said that he has a head that “just screams “beat me until I beg for mercy and then kick me to death” “, so sure, I am not a fan.

Come on, even if you were previously indifferent surely this is enough to turn you (my bolds)

Kevin Rudd and his wife, Therese Rein, and Nicole Kidman had originally been invited to add the necessary glitz for the occasion, the newspaper said.

But all three declined to attend the extravagant do — which includes nine bridesmaids for Jaber and at which the couple will be carried on thrones.

Woman’s Day and OK magazine have stepped in to strike a new deal with Sandilands, but the contract is reportedly only worth half of what New Idea had originally been willing to pay.

While Australia’s A-list celebrities have snubbed the chance to see Sandilands and Jaber get hitched, there could more than a few average Joes in attendance.

On its website, OK magazine is running a competition giving away 10 double passes to the wedding.

Best I go pick up a copy of OK and try and win me one of those double passes, wanna come as my date?

Thrones, the sad thing is I suspect it will be done without even the barest hint of irony.

I can just see the invite dropping in on K-Rudd and Ms Rein

TR – Honey, we’ve been invited to a wedding
KR – How nice, didn’t know we knew anyone who was getting hitched
TR – It’s Kyle Sandilands and someone called Tamara
KR – Kyle? Sandilands?
TR – That’s right
KR – Kyle?
TR – Yes
KR – Sandilands?
TR – Uh-huh
KR – We don’t have any Sandilands on the front bench, can you get me the list? Maybe he is on the backbench somewhere, a minion from the boondocks perhaps.
TR – No honey, I think he is one of those “Shock Jocks” I keep reading about.
KR – And he wants us to go to his wedding because?
TR – …………………….
KR – Send our apologies we are going over to Julia’s for a BBQ that day
TR – I didn’t tell you what day
KR – WE ARE HAVING A BBQ AT JULIA’S THAT DAY

I believe I can also be quoted as saying “I hate that he makes me hate him this much, I guess that means Kyle wins”

We all need someone to hate, it’s fun and it stops me from pulling the wings off flies.

orright point taken

HTFU Em

I have never run track properly and am more than a little intimidated, I’ll get down at the start of the season and have a look and see if I want to get amongst it.

Just had home made pizza for dinner, mini pita breads, grated zucchini, cherry tomatoes, smoked tuna, mushies and cheese, was very good, still hungry though, I am such a piglet.

A bit of a wussy ride after work today, only 40 minutes at a much lower heart rate than usual, average around 75% I think, though I did finish the last couple of minutes at a pretty high cadence. Even though I am not racing tomorrow I ran pretty well last night so I treated tonight as a recovery session. I’ll be running tomorrow morning rather than in the afternoon and didn’t want to smash my legs with the usual high tempo bike session.

Tan Relays tomorrow, the last round of the season, I am in a mens division 6 team, that consists of 3 chicks and one bloke hopefully a few more girls who sat out this season will be back next year so we can consistently field 2 women’s teams. I don’t mind filling out a mens team but I really would prefer to be running the women’s comp.

Don’t expect any reports of a tan PB tomorrow, I AM NOT RACING is my mantra, also I haven’t run hills for yonks so Anderson St is probably going to kill me and force me to slow the pace anyway.

One more week of work and I am off to Cairns, my sister and I already have the days mapped out. Up early with the sunshine for a run, walk into town (we are staying at a resort in the mountains) for breakfast, pick up some groceries for lunch and the all important mixers for the rum and vodka and then a solid session of laying about by the pool reading and drinking.

Sounds like awfully hard work doesn’t it?

rolling yesterday, running today

I bought new shoes yesterday, and they are not sneakers!

I know! I could barely believe it myself.

It is that time of year when the weather starts to get warmer and I start thinking about summer dresses and shorts and singlets and long warm days. I spotted a cute pair of heels in Myer a few weeks ago, then yesterday I open the paper and they are on sale, already! Bless the economic down turn and desperate retailers madly discounting product quicker than you can say Stocktake sale.

Here they are, not my legs and definitely not my feet, mine need a bit of work before they can be shown in public in open toed toes without women fainting and children screaming. My pair are pale blue though, thought that would be a change from boring old tan.

Now, there was a dress in Sportsgirl that would go really well with those shoes……………..

Last night I had a relaxed roll around the streets with a Melbourne Marathon training group, the lads (Rupert and Tony) took the faster runners out the front and I kept the slower group company on my bike. They did very well and kept in touch with the front group for the first 5km or so and then the speed demons took off. One of the ladies used to run with me on Saturday mornings at Jells Park late last year, back then she was talking about maybe doing a 10km fun run, now she is getting ready to run the Half Marathon in October. As I suspected it was good for me to get amongst it again, even if it was only on a push bike, I had a few quick chats while we were out there and then some more talk afterwards as everyone was stretching, back in my element again.

I drummed into the 10km and half marathon runners that they are not to preface their distance with “only” when someone asks them which race they have entered, for example “I am only doing the 10K”. I guess I am a bit pedantic about that, people should hold their head up and be proud of their achievement no matter what the distance. I for one would be very very happy to go to my grave with a sub 40 minute 10km but having never run a marathon. My body has already proven to be stubbornly resistant to the training it takes to even run a decent half, let alone the full 42.2. I would be more than satisfied with some very solid 5km and 10km times behind me and will never feel less of a runner for not doing the marathon.

Therefore I am a tad evangelical and never accept people prefacing their race of choice with an “only”, afterall I doubt Bekele and Dibaba told their mates they was only doing the 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the Olympics.

Running again tonight, running days are happy days.

Ewen, yes there are 5000mtre races I could run over the Summer season, Stu is probably tired of suggesting them to me by now but I am not that big a fan of running in circles, I don’t have the confidence to be that exposed.

A hugging strangers kinda run

A sure sign that I have had a great run is when I want to start hugging strangers, but of course in this rather conservative society we have cultivated hugging strangers is frowned upon, so I settled for walking back to my car with an idiot grin on my face.

The schedule for this week is two reps at 12.5 minutes run/1 minute walk and then finish with one set of 5 minutes to make up the 30 minutes. I was looking forward to seeing how I would fare with my pace over 12.5 minutes, pretty good as it happens. I finished the 30 minutes worth of running pretty much spot on 6.5km. My legs are feeling good lately and I am tentatively allowing myself to relax and feel confident. Injury really messes with your head and I was having just this conversation with a friend I was running with on Friday (see, I was able to run 4:40s and still talk, so there!). There is no denying that going through the stress fractures for a second time has really knocked my self belief about. 2 years ago I had all these great goals and ambitions and really believed that I could run to a certain level.

Now……..

I’d just be happy to get though a year in one piece

Tomorrow night I am released from the bonds of the windtrainer as I will be rolling along with another Melbourne Marathon training run. It is a poor substitute for the high intensity of a work out on the windtrainer but the company of friends and other runners will do wonders for my bruised soul, I’ll just call it my rest day for the week.

I was thinking about diet and nutrition today, I spent so many of the best years of my life following stupid, damaging and impossible diets. I came to my senses a couple of years ago and decided enough was enough, took up running and quit “dieting” and hey presto, 75kg went down to 61kg and it was pretty easily done too.

I don’t diet, I go though periods where my eating can be pretty atrocious (generally emotionally driven) and periods where I am positively saint like (generally when I have been injured and want to drop a Kg or 2 because I am too close to my upper limit) but most of the time I sit somewhere comfortably in the middle and I am generally not too angst ridden about the whole thing.

This is what I ate today -

Breakfast – Flat white (full fat milk because I despise low fat dairy products and refuse to eat them, apart from the Physical Milk I have on cereal) and Fruit Toast with butter (because I love butter but only eat it a couple of times a week)

Second Breakfast (like a hobbit I often have a second breakfast, lets call it an early morning tea shall we) – Small bowl of Sustain cereal with Physical Milk

Lunch – Tuna Pasta Salad

Afternoon Tea – A quarter cup of nibbly things (raw almonds, yoghurt coated sultanas, dried apricot and a big fat juicy date)

Dinner – Home made Pumpkin soup and some toasted Turkish Bread with a little butter (rare but a two butter bread day)

A glass of white wine

Dessert – Haven’t had any yet, often don’t but probably one of those little fruit cup thingies.

That’s a pretty typical day really, I don’t usually have toast for breakfast but I walked past a cafe this morning with yummy looking fruit bread so I partook, that is the thing really, if I really fancy something I generally indulge. If I have that attitude I find that I don’t tend to over indulge too much because I never really deny myself anything. As soon as I decided “I am on a diet I must be good” failure is but a frenzied trip to Haigh’s away, however if nothing is off limits I find myself naturally eating well and only occasionally having an over whelming urge to give in, therefore I do give in and don’t fret about it.

Pretty simple really.

Oh yeah, the 5km race, there are a couple I am looking at in December but at this stage I am keeping things pretty low key. I’ll see what my Doctor says next week and if I can return to interval training I will be able to get a better idea of where I am at.

Aghhhhhhhhh

Is that how you represent a primal scream?

I had to get angry with my poor attitude this afternoon. I jumped on the bike this afternoon and I was struggling from the start, my legs felt heavy and it took longer than usual for my heart rate to settle and for me to get into the swing of things. I had the iPod cranked up and snuck a look at my watch figuring I would be at about 30 minutes, unfortunately it was only 25 minutes and for a moment I really wanted to just get off the damn thing and have a shower.

However, I had been occupying myself with thoughts of a 5km PB before the end of the year and a race that I had entered later this year in which I hope to achieve that goal. Sorry honey but PBs do not come easily and if you have been injured they certainly don’t come from chucking a sook and climbing off the bike after only 25 minutes.

Serendipitously the psychic iPod sensed a disturbance in the force and kicked in with the live version of Head like a Hole, yeah baby, Aghhhhhhhh, 88% heart rate for the next 4.5 minutes, getting angry now, bad attitude be gone…………..

No you cant take it
No you cant take it
No you cant take that away from me
No you cant take it
No you cant take it
No you cant take that away from me

Head like a hole.
Black as your soul.
I’d rather die than give you control.
Head like a hole.
Black as your soul.
I’d rather die than give you control.

Memories of dancing around dark nightclubs clad in acres of black velvet come flooding back

From Goth Punk to Running Freak, what the hell happened there?

So a tilt at a 5km PB is on the cards in an attempt to salvage something from the year, I do have the 10km PB from earlier this year but the course turned out to be 92 metres short so I am not satisfied with that.

I have a few races targeted in December, both on the road, I am sure I can go under 22:56 at one of them as I still have 2 whole months of running before I get there. I want it and I am prepared for the raw, searing, burning and lung tearing pain that will probably come with it, I am busting a gut on the bike now so I can finish the year on a high.

Sassy, UAT is user acceptance testing, a way of life for us poor souls in IT

Ok, I guess I am doing this now

I had vague plans of what I wanted to do today, testing for work, a spot of exercise and some house work in the AM and then visit my best buddy in her her house this afternoon.

But the best laid plans and all that……

UAT for work was a breeze this morning as I was able to do it from home, the software upgrade went off without a hitch and even though I had to get up at 5am I was back in bed again by 5:20am because it all went swimmingly (I know, rare!!!)

Exercise today consisted of a 30 minute spin at a pretty high intensity, average HR at 83% and the sweat was flying off me, then I changed into a dry T-Shirt, put my proper sneakers on and headed straight out the door for my run. I walked just over a kilometre to the park and the got stuck into three sets of 10 minutes run/1 minute walk on the softer path. Doing a hard session on the bike before hand is a good way of forcing me to keep the pace down, my legs were pretty smashed and I covered about 6.2km in 30 minutes, still sub 5 minute kms though. Look, my body is comfortable running at the pace I am running, weeks of training on the bike at just below anaerobic threshold has obviously had an impact and I am going with it, no apologies.

So I have run 4 days this week, the first time since coming back. Next week it changes to 2 sets of 12.5 minutes and 1 set of 5 minutes with a 1 minute walk break in between, it will work out to 3 days running next week.

After I got out of the shower I found my Mum and Step Dad had popped around to do a few more things in the garden. Mum insisted that I should just go over to my friends house and not worry about it, but really, I can’t leave my old Mum and Dad working away in the garden while I flounce off to have coffee and sit about gossiping. So this afternoon turned into another Backyard Blitz session as the screening was finished off, we filled in the last garden bed and planted 4 Gardenia bushes (can’t wait until they come into bloom, mmmmmm, also a tribute to my Grandma they were her favourite flower), pulled out the vine that was growing around my letter box, pulled up some old brick paving (DO NOT get in the way of my mother when she starts chucking bricks about) and replaced them with new pavers, I planted a row of mondo grass next to the pavers and some Cordalynes (sp? can’t be arsed checking the spelling I am not a horta-freakin-cultralist) on the other side and finally I also pointed the pavers (that is a fancy way of saying I packed in the sand between the pavers).

Phew, afterwards I poured myself a rather generous glass of wine and flopped in a bean bag for a while and read a book.

Damnit, I am having Fish and Chips for dinner tonight because I sure as hell aren’t cooking.

Wanna go up to the chippy and get them for me?